GORR - Aug 2019

It’s been a very strange time with extreme highs and extreme lows but hopefully the lows will lessen and the highs increase as we head into the final months of 2019.

July finished on a very low note for us when our beloved black cat George finally lost his battle against severe multiple illness and we had to say goodbye to him. Pets are so much part of the family, (or should be), and a loss is always so hard to deal with but we can be thankful that George had a wonderful 11 years of life and had love enveloping him from day one, and equally he returned love and affection back to us.

I cannot believe it’s already August and this month is going to race by as it is pretty much totally taken up with recording Christmas Portraits at the Granary on my favourite Steinway Model D.

There are a few other things happening in-between the recording days which will include son Adam’s 19th wedding anniversary with his lovely wife Terri. It’s hard to come to terms with the fact they’ve been married for 19 years......but like all the kids, they are extremely happy and deservedly so.

On the 8th I will be attending the National Cat Awards, for which I am one of the judges. Always a very special event at the Savoy and full of wonderful people who love animals..
Most of my evenings will be used up doing phone interviews with America which because of the time change mean that most of them will be morning for them and evening for me. I will wait prepared with a plate of toasted tea cakes and a flask of coffee!

On the 15th I will be completing the Piano Odyssey dates with my last show which will be at Snape Maltings, the stunning complex Borne from the Aldeburgh Festival of which Benjamin Britten was a founder. I played there many years ago and have always wanted to go back so this final Piano Odyssey show will be very special as there will be no more of these.

We split the Piano Odyssey tour into two periods and I am aware that some people who attended shows in both periods were disappointed that it was the same show. Truth is, it was never meant to be a different show which is why it had the same title. If it were going to be a different show I would have come up with a new title. As it happens, I have decided that after the Xmas shows, which will be just piano and mostly all the Xmas music from the Christmas Portraits album, there won’t be any more piano concerts in the UK until 2022 when I will probably do one final piano tour, but hopefully with a bit of a twist which I’m currently working on.

This doesn’t mean goodbye to stage performing, far from it, I intend to do shows with The English Rock Ensemble and a farewell tour with the wonderful ARW. I also have some other plans which if they reach fruition, (and I am going to make sure they do), will make 2020, 2021 and 2022 absolutely amazing musically.

After the recording is finished, Sony are filming with me for Christmas Portraits which should be a lot of fun.......I wonder if they’ll make me dress up as an elf?
Enjoy the summer...it does seem like we get one these days...